


Obelisk

by reafterthought



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Digimon Wonderswan Series
Genre: Brainwashing, Gen, Infection, dark seed, digimon statues, ffn challenge: drabblechap endurance, non-epilogue compliant, non-tri compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-04-17 20:03:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14196669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reafterthought/pseuds/reafterthought
Summary: They had taken it for granted that the Dark Towers and their debris would disappear. But they didn't and the Digimon are falling ill. All with the name of Milleniummon on their lips.





	1. whisper rising

**Author's Note:**

> Finally, one of Aiko's children will be sent into the world by Auntie Remi. :D Or, in other words, this is one of the plunnies I've adopted from Aiko. Title and summary are both from her, word for word. Remi only takes credit for the execution (no muse, you are not executing one of Aiko's baby!). This will be a drabblechap, Remi-speak for like a multichip but with shorter and choppier chapters. Enjoy!
> 
> Chapter 2 onwards also for the Drabblechap Endurance!

The whisper was rising up.

It had started with just a single murmur in a digiworld street that had scared Ken out of his wits. Because he was the only one who recognised the name. The only one who even vaguely remembered, though Gennai seemed under the impression that they all knew…

They didn't. That just made things confusing. And frightening, as the whisper began to spread. Random places: the streets, villages, the large empty – and then everywhere they went in the digital world. From digimon with feverish skin and heated lips. Originally they'd look almost normal, just wandering with dazed eyes. Now they weren't wandering much. They were lying in beds and cots being nursed.

Them Chosen had been reduced to nursemaids but no-body was laughing. Maybe someone would have, if it wasn't for that whisper, that  _name_. If Ken hadn't almost jumped out of his skin like someone had doused him with frighteningly cold water.

If the rest of them could only remember what the name 'Milleniummon' even  _meant_  to them, why that pit of fear seemed to grow every time they heard it until they didn't want to come to the Digital World anymore, to listen to that whisper rising up louder and louder, more and more…

And if only they could ask someone for an answer. But all they got were whispers of the name. Except for Gennai, who'd started to say something before vanishing into the datascape so that Koushiro had, as of yet, failed to dig him back out again.


	2. the moths reflecting flame

Agumon was the first of them to fall ill.

That surprised them. Wormmon was the only one to remember having met Millenniummon before, and yet it was Agumon who grew yellow, then white, then faint. They weren't sure if it was purposeful or not but that was terrifying too, because Agumon was at the head of their team and if he fell, what did it mean for the rest of them?

And worse was when V-mon followed suit, and then Hawkmon soon after, and that was complicated because Agumon had started fading by then, turning grey like stone, like the other digimon they'd tried to nurse back to health but failed. They tried even harder now, as though they had something more to give from before and there were needle-stabs of guilt in their minds because maybe they did have something more to give and they were only given it now because it was their friends, their precious partners, who were falling.

But they could still do nothing and Agumon turned into stone like the rest, just as still and dark and likewise with the name of Millenniummon on his lips.

And they all watched in horror… but not even Ken and Wormmon understood, and they were the only ones who knew of Millenniummon at all.


	3. missing memories

Agumon made a tiny bit of sense, in the context of Millenniummon. A very tiny bit, because Wormmon remembers a boy called Akiyama Ryo mentioning him, mentioning how they'd partnered up temporarily, and then he'd partnered V-mon and that's when he'd met Ken -

But he had to stop the story there because Ken had doubled up in pain, clutching his skull. And it wasn't just fear this time but something else. Something trying to break out of his skull except it couldn't do it. And even when the pain finally went away it left him pale and shaky and nauseous and Wormmon firmly planted himself in his lap and refused to leave. He was frightened too.

They couldn't leave. Of course they couldn't leave and if it had been anyone else, it might have simply been because they wanted answers but Ken was also one of them: a Chosen, and their friend. Even if he didn't speak to them for days after. Even if he only clutched Wormmon close to him like a teddy bear and Wormmon reared up on his lap and clutched the shirt covering his chest and loaned what comfort he could, and when he finally did speak they held their breath because, by Homeostasis if he started whispering Millenniummon's name as well…

But he didn't. 'I can't remember,' he said, and then he cried.


	4. in old times they seek

Wormmon didn't bring the topic up again, and refused to answer when they did. It was out of concern for Ken: that much was obvious, but the rest of them scrambled for answers that couldn't be found while V-mon turned into stone, and then Hawkmon and by then Gabumon and Palmon were cold and sinking as well.

Then the humans had to put their foot down, but they put Ken on duty helping Koushiro track down Gennai first. That was their compromise, and yes they felt bad going around his back they had to. They needed answers and nobody else could give them.

The digital world was empty - or those that were still find were tucked away, in places the Chosen couldn't find. And now they couldn't even look because they were stretched thin. They had seven digimon between the twelve of them now and the fliers weren't flying as fast or as far and they worried it would soon be four and so they could only split into four groups at most. It was like a plague that was grabbing them all one at a time or thereabouts and they had no idea how to stop it, and barely an idea of what was causing it at all.

And so they fleshed out the story of Milleniummon, because that was all they had. And Wormmon had very little, though the most. He told of how Ryo had told of Agumon and Taichi, frozen in stone. But Wormmon had never seen them. And then there was Milleniummon's strange fascination with both Ryo and Ken: almost reverence with Ryo, and distaste for Ken.

But that didn't really help, in the end. 'Ryo would know much more,' Wormmon said. 'But Ryo has been gone for too long.' And, of course, because his concern was always Ken. 'Ken believed he'd come back, even when no-one else did - until he stopped mentioning him too, when he changed.' When the Dark Seed's infection had taken root.


	5. and memories they find

Wormmon told them more about Ryo, when the name failed to ring bells amongst the others. The digimon was frowning as he spoke, though. ‘How do you know remember?’ he wondered aloud, finally. ‘Ken-chan doesn’t because of the Dark Seed. But Taichi-san would have met Ryo, before he turned into stone.’

Taichi didn’t recall. Neither did the rest of them, though whether they should or shouldn’t was up for debate. ‘Gennai knows more,’ Yamato sighed. ‘It would help if he told us instead of letting us chase our tails.’

‘Well, Koushiro and Ken are working on contacting him,’ Miyako reminded. ‘Is there anything else we can try? And don’t say looking for this Akiyama Ryo,’ she cut across Daisuke’s attempt to suggest it. ‘If Gennai couldn’t find him, it’s probably not what we want to be spending time better spent elsewhere on.’

‘Last resort, then,’ Takeru mused. ‘It is better than nothing, and we have resources in the human world that Gennai may not have thought to look at. Still, if there’s something with a better chance…’

‘There’s Vamdemon’s castle,’ Tailmon suggested, after a brief pause. ‘Do you recall when Homeostasis explained the past to us? That building is deeply entrenched with the maintenance of balance of this world, and with the Chosen.’

‘Or we could contact Homeostasis.’ But Jyou sounded reluctant. They all were, truthfully, with what it seemed to do to Hikari.

She, in question, looked bemused. But she had her own concerns about that place. ‘Are you sure you want to go, Tailmon?’


	6. nightmares give nothing but painful times

Unfortunately, Vamdemon's castle did nothing but see Tailmon shake like a leaf, and the chill didn't seem to go away once they'd returned to Ken and Koushiro. Whatever was striking down the digimon had found another victim, and they seemed no closer than before to finding out how to stop it.

Hikari carried Tailmon's chilled form in her arms as she flew with Takeru and Pegasusmon. The ticking timer was even closer now for them. Nothing they did seemed to help. Their searches produced on results. The real world was no different to the digital one. The entire populance of the digital world slowly turned into stone under their watch and all they knew was Milleniummon.

Milleniummon. Why did none of them now of him? Why was it that some of them should? There wasn't a scrap of records to be found with him -

And then Ken found it. Like it was waiting for him, and only him. Inside Koushiro's digital analyser, received from Gennai years ago. Patched together with the scraps of memory inside most of their digivices. Not Daisuke, nor Miyako, nor Iori. But the others, who'd apparently all met Milleniummon before. And that was so convoluted that they'd never have guessed there was a message hidden there at all.

Sadly, it told them nothing new. Wormmon already knew that Milleniummon, for whatever reason, despised the Chosen and, in particular, Ken.


	7. game plan

Their game plan against the clock was as follows: find Gennai, find Akiyama Ryo, and/or find Milleniummon. And, naturally, the last was their highest priority but least likely to just happen. And they needed to do it fast, while they still had some semblance of a fighting force.

They were already down every Jogress evolution they had in their arsenal (Armadillamon wasn’t quite stone, but he was cold and asleep since yesterday), and they had one digimon amongst them who had previously reached the mega stage.

Hikari clung to the petrified Tailmon. Iori pleaded with the chilling Armadillamon. Nothing came out of it but more despair. Takeri clutched Patamon close and Ken did the same with Wormmon and they were the only ones still safe, still sound -

But they were working against the clock, they knew, so the question really was “safe for how long?” Their progress had stalled too quickly and they were losing their means to search more. The world had emptied out, and it was never the sort of world in which humans should outnumber digimon.

Even if all they accomplished was despair, they had to keep on moving forward. There was no other direction, no other option. There was no way to go back, no way they knew of that would turn stone back into flesh… and so they had to keep searching, places they hadn't searched before, until they ran dry or otherwise found the answers they'd been searching for.


	8. all but one

Over the days, Patamon froze and the hearts of the Chosen with them. Wormmon, for whatever reason, remained untouched but he was just one 'mon fighting a force they couldn't grasp.

And Wormmon was always clutched in Ken's arms, now. Clutched close like a teddy bear for comfort and reassurance… but how much reassurance could he offer when his brethren were cold stone, with the name of Millenniummon frozen upon their lips. They waited powerlessly, now, for the final stone to drop.

And their waited in their own world, because they'd exhausted their options in the Digital one.

Koushiro was relentless. Sora quiet. The rest of them fell somewhere along the spectrum but not one of them could begrudge Ken or Wormmon, especially when knowing he'd felt the loss of a partner before.

What they - or some of them - could begrudge though was his memory. They'd shied away from the topic but they'd gained nothing elsewhere. Still, should they ask a friend to suffer so that they might prevent something else? Should he have volunteered himself?

For now he and Koushiro busied themselves in searching: for Gennai, for Akiyama Ryo, and for Millenniummon as well.

But no matter where they searched: human or Digital world, they found nothing but their digimon turned to stone.


	9. clarity doesn't always tell

It was empty: too empty. They’d been used to their digimon partners by their side, used to the constant colour in the Digital World, and the bustle of crowds in the human one. They were used to their own voices, and the voices of their friends and companions, and the voices of their enemies shouting threats that would never come into fruition and they’d be able to shout that - all those sentiments - right back and with even greater force.

It was an entirely different thing, fighting an invisible, intangible enemy. Quite a different thing searching for a phantom that only existed in lost memories. Ken still winced as a current of pain shot through his head every time they heard the name… but they’d found nothing else to personify him. And they didn’t fight Gennai either.

All they found were their own digimon, immobile stones. And their energy drained and so did their hope. They searched anyway, because the bonds they shared with their partners went even beyond that. They searched but they didn’t really know where to search so it was pointless.

It was Hikari’s idea to travel again, or specifically for Ken to travel. They went with him anyway, because Ken was the only lead they had and their friend. They went to all the places the Digimon Kaiser had left scars. They went to the tattered remnants of his memories from before that time, from his first adventure in the digital world.

They wandered through a desert from the place where the fortress fell to a place that looked exactly the same to all of them except for Ken. Ken who saw the scene of his lingering nightmares in more clarity than ever before, but learned nothing new to share.


	10. petulant child

It clicked, after a night of nightmares and tempers running high the day before. Ken had nursed a headache even before then, from worry and long hours on the computer, but it was made worse by bringing into focus that past he couldn’t recall.

He didn’t remember immediately, not with those tired faces clinging to the last of their hope around him… but now he did. Young, impressionable and jealous… and somehow finding himself on the other side of that jealousy.

Even now… He’s the only one left with a digimon, with Wormmon by his side and it’s been made so: made purposely so. Or perhaps it’s simply a flaw in Milleniummon’s plan and they’ve escaped his stone curse…

But while Wormmon is spared, Ken has a seed of darkness in his neck and he can’t help but wonder and fear what’s in store. Ken who had Ryo like an older brother, like a trusted partner, like a friend… When all Milleniummon had wanted were those feelings pointed at him instead. Wormmon had more cause, and yet Wormmon had never done any of the things Milleniummon did…

In the dark, Ken reached blindly for Wormmon and held him close. ‘I deserved it.’ His voice was hoarse from the weight. ‘From you. Not from him.’

‘I know the value of friends and family,’ Wormmon replied. ‘Milleniummon does not.’ He paused, then added. ‘Have you thought of something?’

‘Possibly.’ Ken withdraws only slightly, and only to wriggle them into a more comfortable position under the covers. ‘Milleniummon is throwing another tantrum. But why now? What’s happened?’

Because every day prior to Agumon’s ill form had been ordinary, as far as he could recall.


End file.
